Kiss, kiss
by Carmilla DeWinter
Summary: Sideswipe overhears some half drunken musing by Glen and Mikaela and reveals a rather suprising fact about the 'bots.


Disclaimer: They're not mine.

A/N: ...and now to something completely different. (Again.)

Usual caveats: I'm German. Please bother to correct me if I'm making mistakes.

* * *

Kiss, kiss

Mikaela turned the half empty bottle of tequila around and around, listening to the clear liquid sloshing inside.

"You know", she said, "I haven't played Truth or Dare in forever."

There was a small thud as Glen put his glass on the table. "You know", he said in an unusual drawl, "and here I'd hoped I was past that age."

"That's only because anyone would pick truth over kissing you", Maggie piped up and giggled. She was more wasted than Mikaela, at any rate.

"Would not", Glen protested mildly.

"You're talking about a game?", an electronic voice asked from behind her.

Mikaela jumped, because it wasn't Bumblebee.

Glen sent an evil grin her way. "Hi, Sides."

Uh-oh. Hopefully Glen wouldn't talk that one into playing with them. So far, he'd let out the air of her bike's tires, fiddled with the base's TV until it only showed Brazilian telenovelas, painted tiger stripes on Maggie's old Honda and renamed every single track of Bee's enormous music collection. He'd been looking oddly at Ironhide the whole day, too, so maybe he'd be dead by tomorrow.

She turned to greet him, and realized that both Sunstreaker and Ratchet were hovering behind his crouching form, like two wardens watching an overgrown red gorilla.

"It's a game, yeah", Sam cut in. "Pretty stupid, too, but you know… teenagers." He shrugged apologetically.

"Not really, no", Sideswipe said. "How do you play?"

"Um, well, you need a few people and an empty bottle", Sam offered. "You all sit in a circle, and one person starts by spinning the bottle. When it stops, they ask the person it's pointing at 'truth or dare'. And then they get to ask either an embarrassing question or pose a dare. Like, a prank or kissing the girl sitting next to you or whatever."

Sideswipe blinked. "You people are so obsessed with that kissing stuff."

"Um", Sam said.

"You mean, you've never kissed anyone?" Maggie broke into another fit of giggles.

"No. Why should I?"

Mikaela looked at him, then she looked at Sunstreaker and Ratchet. "You've been bunking with them for nearly a week", she pointed out.

"And?" His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Dude", Glen said. "Chill. It's just a way we express affection."

Glen wasn't nearly as stupid as he looked.

There was a click from Ratchet. "Our 'mouths' aren't nearly as sensitive as yours." You could hear the quotation marks from a mile off, too. "They're mostly there to allow for facial expressions."

"Huh", Sam offered. "Yeah. I mean, Bee and Wheeljack don't even have mouths."

"Well, I'm, like, so glad we talked about it", Maggie said and giggled some more. "Y'know, Sides, I dare you to kiss Ratchet."

For a very long, very silent minute, Sides just looked at Maggie. Hopefully he wouldn't crush her for one drunken comment.

But he only clicked once and then was silent for another minute. "You see", he eventually offered, "I live by the rule to try everything at least once."

He rose, ever so gracefully, as if he were a martial arts expert, and turned to look at Rachet. They weren't speaking, but she thought that they were discussing the dare.

After an endless moment, Ratchet tilted his head a little, obviously having given his okay, because Sides advanced on him. He stopped mere inches from Ratchet, looking up at him.

Mikaela couldn't see his face, but she saw Ratchet's, and his searching, expectant, nervous, excited look. It reminded her of her first time kissing Sam, and for some stupid reason sympathetic heat pooled into her stomach at the sight.

She watched as Sides put a hand to Ratchet's chin, tugging his head down to meet him halfway, and, after an agonizing second of hesitation, their mouths met with a rasp of metal on metal.

It was over just as quickly, and again they stood, watching each other. However, Ratchet's expression wasn't one of dreamy wonder, as Sam's had been. It was obvious that it hadn't been a revelation to him, and that made Mikaela sigh.

Eventually, Sides turned to look at them. "I don't know", he proclaimed. "There's more interesting places to nibble than someone's_mouth_." He grinned mischievously.

Smiling, Mikaela shook her head, while Maggie was obviously too stunned to giggle.

Ratchet reached out and touched Side's shoulder. "I'd thank you not to elaborate."

"Aww. So easily embarrassed?"

"No. But Sam might die of heart failure if you do."

Mikaela turned to look at her boyfriend. Hmm. Ratchet was right. Sam looked caught up in his own little world of horror.

"You should drink some more water before you go to sleep", Ratchet said apropos of nothing. "It should help you avoiding a hangover." He turned and walked off, the twins in tow.

"Dude", Glen said when they were out of earshot.

"Yeah", Sam groaned. "I so didn't need that mental image."

Mikaela chose not to comment. Maybe the difference between girls and boys was even bigger than she'd thought, because she found the idea of Sides trailing kisses down Ratchet's torso quite sexy.


End file.
